Photo: Wrapping up Nunalivut 2015

Canadian Armed Forces concluded Operation Nunalivut, April 22. This year’s edition of the annual High Arctic military exercise included Canadian Ranger and Army patrols on Victoria Island, staged out of Cambridge Bay, as well as archaeological ice dives by Royal Canadian Navy and Parks Canada divers under the sea ice at this site, pictured, in the east of Queen Maud Gulf. Ice divers explored the wreck of HMS Erebus from the lost Sir John Franklin Arctic expedition of 1845. This April 16 photo shows Canadian Rangers Henry Lyall and Bruce Takolik holding down their tent as a CH-149 Cormorant helicopter takes off from the sea ice at the ice-dive site. “This year’s Operation Nunalivut is certainly one we will remember for years to come due to the historical significance of the dive on one of the long lost Franklin Expedition ships, said Lieut.-Col. John St. Dennis, commanding officer for Operation Nunalivut 2015. (PHOTO COURTESY OF DND/CANADIAN FORCES)